Cannery braces
for bad times
with cutsCompetition leaves the Maui
firm and its employees stressed
KAHULUI >> After spending most of his adult life working for Maui Pineapple Co., mechanic Martin Jenson sees an uncertain future as the last pineapple cannery in Hawaii is replaced.
"I just want them to say my future is good with the company," said Jenson, who has worked for the firm for 20 years and is worried about pending layoffs.
Facing difficulties because of competition in foreign countries, Maui Pineapple officials have announced plans to eventually scrap the old cannery in Kahului and replace it with a smaller and more efficient processing plant probably in 2006.
Last year, the firm said it planned to reduce the number of pineapple workers to 500 from 1,100 in the next four years.
Maui Land & Pineapple Co., the pineapple company's parent firm, said recently the reduction of pineapple workers will be less than initially estimated.
David Cole, who became Maui Land & Pine president and chief executive officer last year, said he does not know how many more jobs will be spared, but has assured workers that the company planned to continue canning pineapple.
The firm, which has begun focusing more on the fresh pineapple market, has been able to weather foreign competition in the past partially because of its broad ownership of land with cheap water and a marketing strategy that sold its product to grocery stores with their own private label.
Maui Land & Pine's high-end Kapalua resort has also helped sometimes to bolster earnings.
But Cole acknowledges the firm was unprepared for the recent surge in housing demand and was unable to take advantage of an increase in residential sales because of a lack of inventory.
"It was a company under stress," he said. "The mentality was just to hunker down and stop the bleeding."
Cole said the firm is continuing to feel competition from low-cost canned pineapple from foreign countries, where a pineapple worker earns $1.50 an hour in Central America compared with roughly $13 an hour on Maui.
He said the firm is looking for a co-investor for a new canning operation and has candidates for developing a microprocessing plant to assist various growers to process food items by 2006.
Cole said the firm also has 500- to 600-acre areas that could be suited for high-tech livestock management, including chicken, pigs, sheep and cattle.
He wants to expand the firm's organic farming to eight times its size in the next two years.
As part of its long-term strategy, Maui Land is developing a partnership with Maui Community College and Lahainaluna High School in developing entrepreneurial farmers on the Valley Isle, "growing growers and not just growing a single crop," Cole said.
The firm sold Queen Kaahumanu Center in Kahului and most of its assets in a pineapple plantation in Costa Rica last year.
The firm spoke about its plans Friday, including a new town of Pelelehua near the Kapalua-West Maui Airport and a 600-acre residential-business center in Hailiimaile.
William Kennison, the Maui division director for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said the union, which represents about 900 pineapple workers, is "cautiously optimistic."
Jenson, who also serves as the Maui Pineapple unit chairman for the ILWU, said he believes what the new leadership is doing is good, but he wishes management could be more definite about who will be employed in the long term.
Ruby Yoshisato, who has worked at Maui Pine for 55 years, said she feels a bit sad about the changes but believes Cole is doing what they can to make the firm survive.
"They not going to give up. They have a vision. Hopefully, the young people will have a chance to work at Maui Pine. It will be a loss if this place goes down."
